Another trio of Qualifiers has come to an end.  It has to be said that the competition is a lot harder now that I have moved into the Standard class – the racing is very tight!  The first weekend loomed just as I was starting to settle into my new flat at university.  Mum and I left on Friday evening and shared the drive, albeit a short one, to South Shields Sailing Club in Newcastle – it was nice to have a weekend a little further North than usual.

We arrived at the sailing club on the Saturday morning, the conditions were light with large offset swell from the night before.  These unusual conditions made the racing a little more interesting than normal.  Although very ironic; the large swell, combined with the light winds, didn’t get on very well with my stomach and I ended up being pretty ill on the water.  However, I was determined to finish the days racing and get on with it.  I finished the day in a disappointing 23rd overall and 9th Under 19.  Sadly the conditions were not in our favour and the racing was cancelled on Sunday.

The next qualifier followed 3 weeks later in Hayling Island.  It was great racing across the weekend with good wind – even the sun popped out for a while.  It was a brilliant turn out with 45 Standards competing!

Saturday brought 10-15 knots of breeze that decreased to 6-8 by the end of the day.  The racing was made very strategic because of large pressure differences across the course, the tide played a big part nearing the end of the day’s racing.  I was very happy to finish day one in 8th overall and 2nd under 19.  Day 2 brought similar conditions with slightly more breeze than the previous day.  I finished day 2 with a 13th, 16th and 17th which dropped me down the results a bit to 13th overall and 3rd under 19.  Although it would have been nice to stick 8th overall I’m pretty pleased with 13th!

The 6th and final qualifier of the year was held in Pwllheli, North Wales with a far smaller fleet than the qualifier before.  The conditions on Saturday were big waves along with 14 knots of wind coming from the South.  Being underweight for the boat didn’t help me in my efforts to put in good results on day one; I scored a 12, 12 and 22.  I feel as though I could have sailed a lot better strategically and tactically and looking back on it I know where I went wrong!  The event was cut short and no races were sailed on Sunday due to too much wind.  I finished the event in 15th overall and 4th under 19.

Having sailed 4 out of the 6 qualifiers in a Standard this year it has allowed me to be ranked on the ladder without having to discard a race that I didn’t compete (DNC) in.  I am currently 14th in the UK and 2nd under 19 in the UK!

I am extremely happy to say that my results from these qualifiers along with my summer results have got me selected onto the Under 21 UK Youth Squad!  This means lots of training down South alongside the Olympic Podium Potential Team, super exciting!

Thanks for reading!

Lewis

Standard Ladder 2016:

http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=89&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stdlad6.2016nh.html